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Process Groups and Knowledge Areas Loren Karl Schwappach Colorado Technical University 30 August 2011 Process Groups and Knowledge AreasIntroduction Hello, my name is Loren Karl Schwappach. I am the new project manager forthe 2011 Billing System Upgrade Project (BSUP). I have been asked to create this briefing toenlighten the customer service and billing departments about project management processgroups and the knowledge areas of project management. I hope this briefing is informativeand helps to open eyes to the upcoming challenges ahead. It is my goal to see this project tosuccess and as base line users you will play a large role in determining the quality andperformance of the final project. 1

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Overview Today I will talk to you about the five project management process groups toinclude: initiating, planning, executing, monitor and controlling and closing. I will alsointroduce the nine knowledge areas of project management to include: integrationmanagement, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management,human Resources management, communications management, risk management, andprocurement management. I will end the briefing with a project management case study. Ifyou have any questions as I proceed during this briefing please feel free to speak them duringthe briefing. 2

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Project Management Process Groups Before the customer service and billing department’s legacy billing systemweb-based upgrade project can be initiated, it is imperative for the project manager, projectteam, and project stakeholders to recognize what is to pass once the project is started and theundertakings they will be required to participate in. This briefing was designed to provide anunderstanding of project management process groups and the nine knowledge areas of projectmanagement so that IRTC employees can observe how to properly work with and structure theproject to ensure this projects success. Although, there is no way to completely anticipate andprevent all problems, having a clear understanding of the processes will help increase theeffectiveness in managing this large upgrade project.Group #1: Initiating The initial phase of project management involves obtaining the necessarypermissions and approvals required to begin the project. Usually, a document outlining thenecessity for the project is created in order to reason to the project’s sponsor how the needs ofthe organization will be met, and approximately how much the project will cost and how longthe project is expected to take (Babou, 2008). The initiating process group contains the processes designed to describe theproject, subproject, or phase of an existing project and obtain authorization to begin eachproject phase. The main processes of the initiating group as defined by the PMBOK are todevelop the project charter and identify stakeholders (Global Standard, 2008). 3

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Group #2: Planning This project group is about planning out the project and defining project goals.Large portions of the project need to be stripped down and deadlines will be scheduled.Stakeholders will play a large role in authorizing and planning out resources (Babou, 2008).This is also the phase in which the project team is put together and begins to identify tasks androles. Project costs are estimated to provide the groundwork for a project budget. The IRTCproject team will utilize MS Project to aid in the scheduling of costs and resources and willutilize your departments in streamlining these plans. The planning process group contains processes needed to establish theprojects scope, smooth and refine objectives and identify courses of action necessary tocomplete project objectives. This group contains the following processes: develop projectmanagement plan, collect requirements, define scope, create WBS, define activities, sequenceactivities, estimate activity resources, estimate activity durations, develop schedule, estimatecosts, determine budget, plan quality, develop human resource plan, plan communications,plan risk management, identify risks, perform quantitative risk analysis, plan risk responses,and plan procurements (Global Standard, 2008).Group #3: Executing Now that the project team has everything in place and goals well-defined, it istime to begin developing the end product results. Contracts are administered as needed, andthe project’s team members make periodic reports on their status. Everything that goes intomaking the plan a reality takes place during the project’s execution group (Babou, 2008). This process group contains the processes used to perform and complete workas outlined by the project management plan and needed to satisfy project specifications. Thisgroup contains the following processes: direct and manage project execution, perform qualityassurance, acquire project team, develop project team, manage project team, distributeinformation, manage stakeholder expectations, and conduct procurements (Global Standard,2008). 4

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Group #4: Monitoring and controlling After the execution stage is under way the project team should beginmonitoring to ensure everything goes according to the project plan. As products and stages arecompleted, each is submitted to the project sponsor (IRTC CIO) for approval. If adjustmentsare required they are made during this stage. The project team and stakeholders should keepan ongoing list of valuable lessons learned during the project to help in evaluating the projectsperformance (Babou, 2008). This process group contains the processes utilized in tracking, reviewing, andregulating the performance and progress of the project, identifying areas for change, andinitiating changes. The group contains the following processes: monitor and control projectwork, perform integrated change control, verify scope, control scope, control schedule, controlcosts, perform quality control, report performance, monitor and control risks, and administerprocurements (Global Standard, 2008).Group #5: Closing The last project management group marks the end of the project. The projectmanager arranges for the final acceptance of the product, and the sponsor accepts. Everythingis carefully documented in writing, and records of contracts, transactions, and otheragreements are completed. Project debriefing and plans for necessary follow up are made atthis time (Babou, 2008). The closing process group contains the processes for finalizing activitiesacross all process groups. This group contains the following processes: close project or phase,and close procurements (Global Standard, 2008). 5

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Project Management Knowledge Areas Managing projects involves applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniquesto project activities in order to meet project objectives. IRTC’s project team will accomplishthis by performing processes at various stages of the project, as I discussed in the project phaseslides. Each aspect of a project is managed by using the corresponding knowledge area. Each process belongs to one of the nine knowledge areas: scope management,time management, cost management, human resource management, procurement management,risk management, quality management, integration management, and communicationmanagement (Kerzner, 2003).Project Integration Management The project is initiated, planned, and executed in pieces, and all those need tofit together. That is where project integration management is utilized. Project integrationmanagement includes developing the project charter (the document that authorizes the projectand identifies initial project requirements), developing the project management plan (defineshow the project is executed, monitored, and controlled), directing and managing projectexecution (creating deliverables, training staff and team members, obtaining resources,performing risk management, managing sellers and suppliers, issuing change requests),monitoring and controlling project work (tracking, reviewing, and regulating the progress tomeet performance objectives), performing integrated change control (reviewing, approving,and managing project changes), and closing the project or a phase of a project (review andfinalizing all activities) (Global Standard, 2008). 6

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Project Scope Management Project scope management includes collecting requirements (defining anddocumenting stakeholder’s needs, customer service will play a large part here), defining thescope (develop detailed description of the project), creating a Work Breakdown Structure(WBS) (subdivides deliverables into smaller manageable components), verifying the scope(formalizing acceptance of deliverables), and controlling the scope (monitoring the status ofthe project and scope and managing changes). Initially our project team will collect therequirements for the project based on the stakeholders’ needs, which will determine the projectscope. Next our project team will develop the description for the project and its products,which is the basis for the project scope. Customer service and billing departments will play alarge role in identifying the features need for this project and thus will play a large part indefining the projects scope and deliverables. Our project team will then create the project’swork breakdown structure (WBS). Next our project team will verify the scope and plan howthe completed deliverables of the project will be accepted. Finally in order to control thescope, only the approved changes to the scope should be implemented. Obviously, thesecomponents are performed by using the corresponding processes (Global Standard, 2008). 7

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Project Time Management Project time management is accomplished by defining activities, sequencingactivities, estimating activity resources, estimating activity durations, developing a schedule,and controlling the schedule. Define activities includes identifying all the work activities thatneed to be scheduled to produce the project deliverables. Sequencing activities involvesidentifying the dependencies among the activities that need to be scheduled so that they can bescheduled in the correct order. Estimating activity resources includes estimate the types ofresources needed and the quantity for each type for each schedule activity. Estimating activitydurations involves estimating the time needed to complete each schedule activity. Developingthe schedule includes analyzing the data created in the previous steps to develop the schedule.Control of the schedule involves controlling the changes to the project schedule (GlobalStandard, 2008).Project Cost Management Cost management includes estimating the cost, determining the projectbudget, and controlling the cost. Estimate cost involves developing the cost of the resourcesneeded to complete the project, which includes schedule activities and outsourced/procuredwork. Determining the budget requires aggregating the costs of individual activities toestablish a cost baseline that includes timing. Control the cost involves monitoring andcontrolling the cost variance in the project execution (Global Standard, 2008). 8

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Project Quality Management Project quality management includes planning the quality, performing qualityassurance, and performing quality control. Planning quality involves determining the qualityrequirements and standards that are relevant to the project at hand and how to apply them.Performing quality assurance involves ensuring the planned quality requirements andstandards are applied. Performing quality control involves monitoring the quality activitiesand recording the results of these activities in order to assess performance and make necessaryrecommendations for corrective actions and changes (Global Standard, 2008).Project Human Resource Management Project human resource management includes developing a human resourceplan, acquiring the project team, developing the project team, and managing the project team.Developing a human resources plan involves identifying project roles, responsibilities for eachrole, and reporting relationships among the roles. The staff management plan describes whenand how the resource requirements will be met. Acquiring the project team involves obtainingthe human resources needed to work on the project. Developing the project team involvesimproving the competencies of the team members and the interaction among members tooptimize the team performance. Managing the project team involves tracking the performanceof team members, provide team members with feedback, and resolve issues and conflicts(Global Standard, 2008). 9

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Project Communication Management Communication management includes identifying project stakeholders,planning communication, distributing information, managing stake holder expectations, andreporting performance. Stakeholder identification involves identifying all individuals, groups,and organizations that will potentially be impacted by the project and find relevant informationabout them (this includes customer service and billing department staff). Planningcommunications involves determining the information and communication needs of the projectat hand and the communication approach to be used. Distributing information involvesmaking the needed information available to the project stakeholders in a timely fashion.Managing stakeholder expectations involves communicating and working with thestakeholders in order to understand and meet their needs, address the issues, and manage theexpectations within the project scope and the project management plan. This maybe the mostessential process and will require a lot of brain storming between the project team andcustomer service and billing departments. Finally, reporting performance involves collectingand distributing performance information to the stakeholders to stay on the same page (GlobalStandard, 2008). 10

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Case Study [WHY] Project management training offers advantages and clearbenefits to include reduced delivery costs, increased project efficiency, focusadvantages, prediction increases, and problem identification (Egeland, 2010). As anexample a case study of [WHO] a major investment company was completed[WHERE] by Rosenhead (2010) of Project Agency a project management onlinetraining agency [WHEN] in 2006 (Rosenhead, 2010). [WHAT] The investmentcompany studied was facing a problem where projects were not being deliveredeffectively (on time or on budget). Very few staff had been involved with projectmanagement courses and they had no overall project management approach. [HOW]The company developed a non-standard project methodology and asked ProjectAgency to benchmark their practices, and the preliminary results were poor. ProjectAgency provided essential project management training to the company and projectsbegan being completed in record time, without breaking budget constraints, andincreased quality. The investment companies’ staff was more aware of the way toapproach change management thorough the use of and application of projectmanagement skills. IRTC customer service employees will play a tremendous role onthe success of this project which is why an understanding of the standard processesinvolved is so essential. 12

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Summary Today I talked to you about the five project management process groups toinclude: initiating, planning, executing, monitor and controlling and closing. I also introducedthe nine knowledge areas of project management to include: integration management, scopemanagement, time management, cost management, quality management, human Resourcesmanagement, communications management, risk management, and procurement management.I concluded the briefing with a project management case study and explained some of thebenefits of project management. I would now like to open the floor to any additionalquestions. Thank you. 13